Actually, it's more common to be a bad HD controller on the MB. Usually due to bad caps on the board. Dells were known for this a while back.


New MB are available on eBay for cheap. It's a pain in the ass, but that's what I had to do.

You can grab a Linux Live CD with an anti-virus built in, so you can kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Load it up, scan the files you want, copy them to a USB drive, and wipe out the rest. Here's a few I found with a quick search. I'm not sure any of those will be able to remove your current problem, but at least you can clean the files you want to save.

Newegg.com - Shell Shocker Deal. Exclusive Jaw Dropping Savings on PC Components and Electronics. some assembly required you do get a lot more for you dollar though.

You guys are awesome! The help is greatly appreciated.

PROBABLY not.

Eg: definately not directly.

The only risk here would be that if someone is on your wifi, they're on the same subnet as you and inside your firewall. Thus, if their PC is infected with a network worm, there's a higher probability of contagion.

This attack vector, however, is fairly uncommon these days. (Too much work on the part of the author as compared to tricking idiots to click "yes" on a web page popup.)

But having someone else using your wifi does open you up to having your door kicked down, flashbangs tossed in to your living room, and your dog getting shot.

I had the same virus (wifes computer :rofl: go figure...)

I logged in as Administrator and created another user with normal rights and copied over the files I really needed to save.

Then blew away the original user and files (because I'd already moved them).

Then, I removed the shit programs that had accumulated and reinstalled what I needed.

Worked fine after.

But, really probably best to just reinstall/upgrade the OS.

It is a PITA virus to make go away especially when your wife thinks the gestapo is going to kick in the door any moment.

Update:
Took it to geek squad today. They're gonna transfer the files from my hard drive onto my 500GB external hard drive I just bought. I'm blown away cause I just paid $42 for an external 500GB hard drive. I can't really fathom this right now. I'm from the old days of 286 25mhz with 40MB hard drives. I remember when 1.3 gigs cost like $479. Now I just paid $42 for 1/2 a terabyte???

lol. I have 3TB of storage on just my desktop. The internal hard drives are even cheaper than the externals.

Technically they are the same price.. u just need a box for the enternals.

Yes the internal drives are the same. But you pay extra for the external drive because of the SATA to usb adapter and power adapter.

The box costs 30 bucks.

Thus making an external drive more expensive. Glad we could come to the same conclusion I did 4 posts ago.

Geek squad called me like 1/2 hour ago and told me they finished my data transfer. I'm not sure when I'm gonna go pick up my stuff, but I will definately be buying a new desktop. I'm looking to spend around $300, recommendations?

DIY or craigslist?

Well, I pretty much assemble my own and have since my first 286 around 1989 (not my first computer). To be honest though the challenge pretty much went away once clock speeds reached 2.5Ghz.

I think it's like having hot rods of old... 'hey I reached 3.2Ghz with the overclock what's yours'?

It's the reason I got back into things with engines and wheels.

For a desktop, look at Newegg online or just go to Best Buy.

Just camp the Lenovo Outlet for a few days until you find a good deal. They post new stuff all the time so you just have to keep checking. $300 should easily get you a high end i3 or low end i5 processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB+ HD. Better than that if you can wait a while and keep checking their site diligently.

I paid $283 for a system with an i5-3470, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 1 TB HD, and a DVD-RW drive. I added another 8 GB of RAM ($48) and a Radeon HD 6450 video card ($35) myself.

Lenovo Outlet | Laptop, Desktop and Tablet PCs | Lenovo | (US)

Now, I'd opt for something with an Intel I5 or better processor even though I used mostly AMD in the past (cost...). Today, the price diff in an already built system is probably $50 or so.

I think you said you had a company laptop? If I only had a desktop and was thinking about upgrading I'd seriously consider just the laptop and an external keyboard/mouse + monitor at home.

Back to school time so the sales are on at the office supply places also. Sometimes, you can buy the display models for another 15-25% off if you look or ask.

Microcenter has some amazing deals on Processor/Mobo combos. I vote getting a 4670 which is the fourth generation I5.